


Retribution ain't sweet like honey

by joouheika



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-30
Updated: 2015-03-30
Packaged: 2018-03-20 09:32:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3645366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joouheika/pseuds/joouheika
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soldiers are likely to catch flies soon enough.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Retribution ain't sweet like honey

**Author's Note:**

> Translation into 中文 available on lofter: [复仇不如蜜甜](http://shanzi1216.lofter.com/post/1cc57463_691b513) by [shanzi1216](http://shanzi1216.lofter.com/)

Long ago, or so the tale is told, when the goddesses walked among them it was known.

There lived a just king with a kind princess as his heir.

However, this is a tale not about them but a goddess.

Her name was Sina.

One day while strolling through the gardens of the castle, the Goddess Sina came across the princess who was weeping deeply.

‘O Fair and Gentle Princess why do you weep so?’ Sina asked.

The princess replied.

‘My knight has been injured gravely in battle. I fear for his life. I have heard of a golden elixir that heals all wounds, cures any sickness, and bestows bliss to all who partake of it, but I naught the strength to find it for it resides deep in the forbidden forest.’

The Princess loved her Knight very much though they could never be.

Even with that, being as kind as she is, of course she was worried for his well being.

Sina thought. She knew of the elixir the Princess spoke of, for it was ambrosia that’d fallen from the heavens during the time of her and her kin’s arrival to this mortal world. Indeed it could heal all wounds, cure any ailment, but it also had another use- it could make an unrequited love requited.

What determined the use of the elixir was up to the person who obtained it.

If it was sought with the intent of healing a wound it would heal a wound.

If it was sought to cure illness it would cure the illness.

If it was sought to ease the burden of an unloved heart, it would make the receiver of its potency fall in love with you.

The elixir knew the truth of your being, it knew it better than even those who’d sought it.

So the Goddess Sina proposed to the Princess they do as such. She would lend the Princess her strength, and they would brave the forbidden forest and obtain that it is that the Princess truly desires.

Her spirits raised by the Goddess Sina’s mercy, the Princess wept no more and the two of them crossed the wall, into the forbidden forest.

Within such a forest they overcame many hardships.

A pack of wolves sought to feast upon them, so Sina transformed into a beast far more fearsome than they to defeat the wolves. 

A witch tried to lure the Princess away with her torch, telling her to come into her house where it was bright and warm, unlike these cold dark woods. Tempting her, to trap her, to make a meal of her and steal her youth. But the Princess refused and lit the witch afire with her own torch.

An entanglement of thorny vines, blossoming on them not red roses that the Princess so knew from her own garden, but flowers of haunting dark blue, barred their way. The Goddess Sina used her large towering form of the beast to be rid of most of the vines, while the Princess used the witch’s torch to burn the rest of it away.

Their trials near over, they finally made it to where the elixir should be.

Some say it plainly, like it was a concoction in a bottle waiting in the hollow of a tree but some others who tell this tale know it to be as such- the elixir, so golden- must have been from a hive. That which the Goddess and the Princess sought must have been honey.

Whether it be one or the other, when the Goddess Sina and the Princess reached this place, they saw that the elixir was nowhere to be found.

It’d been already taken by another.

Heavy of heart, the Princess returned with the Goddess back to the garden where the Princess wept many days more and many nights more.

The Goddess stayed by the Princess’s side the entire time, only leaving it when one night, the Knight entered the garden.

Thinking to leave them alone, the Goddess Sina made to depart from the garden.

However she was stopped by the Knight, who called out to her.

They stood before each other and the Goddess looked upon the Knight.

Indeed he was gravely injured. Many a wound serious and trite was riddled over his body.

The Knight had not entered the garden to see the Princess who ached for him so, but had entered the garden on seeing the Goddess.

The Knight loved the Goddess very much though they would never be.

The Knight said to the Goddess-

‘O Wise and Powerful Goddess Sina. While its gold does not come close to matching the beauty of your eyes. Please accept this gift that I have fought tirelessly to obtain for the sake of giving to you.’

The Knight held out that which was in his hands, the token of his feelings that he so wished to give to the Goddess Sina.

It was within heart shaped glass, the golden elixir that the Princess had so sought to give to her Knight.

In that moment the Princess ceased her weeping, for her heart was broken.

The Goddess Sina then took the glass, full of the elixir, from the Knight’s hands into her own.

She uncapped the bottle and upturned it, spilling its contents over the Knight’s head.

Sina did not speak until the elixir, thick and sticky, golden and sweet, ran down over the Knight’s body and had in her eyes, healed all his wounds.

This is what she said to him.

‘O Brave and Foolish Knight. Have you been healed of all wounds?’

So had been the Princess’s wish.

The Knight replied.

‘Indeed, Your Grace. All has been healed, but for my heart which is broken beyond repair.’

The Goddess spoke thus.

‘Then offer up your heart. A Knight has nary a need of it from the start.’

And so the Knight gave up his heart, putting it in the jar where the elixir once had been. Seeing the jar not entirely full just yet, the Goddess returned to the Princess’s side and thus placed the Princess’s broken heart also into the jar.

Filling the jar.

The Goddess Sina gave the jar of hearts, two making one whole- to the Princess.

So had been the Princess’s desire.

The Princess was overjoyed, her heart no longer broken, and the heart of her Knight now in her possession, one with her own, she wept never again as she had in her garden.

This story has been told for many many years to teach the people of the might of the gods, the loyalty the deities served to the beloved royal family whose rule is absolute.

Or so it had been.

Not as common it is among the younger generation.

While it is still spoken as such, like a fable, it’s mainly commonly told by grandparents unable to let go of the lessons they themselves have been taught about their place in the world to their children’s children who not much a thought to the strength of gods. For nobles to show off the prestige of their king, the only master they served while all the rest are beneath them- it is also a popular tale among bakers, who put honey on their bread to sell as their most popular wares, among housewives who cooked with honey for a dish they wish to share with their beloved, among lovers who wanted to sweeten their match, and among doctors who wanted to assure their patients that honey can heal.

But Eren had not been told this story from his father, a doctor, but his mother since that was where his father had heard the story from in all its detail. Though near everyone had heard a nuance of it at least once as a child.

Eren had been surprised.

His mother didn’t much like telling him such stories as he grew older, thinking fairytales unrealistic. Useless. Harmful. Ill serving of their actual purpose for someone like her son.

She hated those stories it seemed, those about princesses being saved by knights or monsters turning human, she hated them from the bottom of her heart and Eren had to be careful when he read them (usually from a book he borrowed from Armin). But she didn’t mind telling him this story.

No princess had been captured.

No knight had been heroic in saving her.

A goddess had merely done her duty.

Eren doesn’t remember if he’d thought the tale boring or not at the time he’d been first told it, he must not have considering he still remembers the tale well. But that might have been from his association of the tale to honey. He remembers his mother had told him the tale as he’d been standing about her skirts in the kitchen, her preparing a meal for his father who was late from his work as usual. 

She’d been doing that but she’d also been making tea from the flowers of her garden, sweetening it with honey just for Eren to drink before he went to bed. He remembers it’d been sweet and calming, like a lullaby she’d sing when he was only a baby. He’d drank it and became sleepy soon after, though he’d wanted to stay up a little longer on the chance of seeing his father… his mother had tucked him into bed and kissed his brow. He’d dreamt of that story she’d told that very night-

‘Offer up your heart,’

He knew he had heard those words before. Eren had wondered to those else who knew of this fairly known tale- did those words also appear in the versions their mothers or fathers had told them?

The warm gold of the sweet delicious honey he had tasted, had been placed over the apples his mother was baking with the rest of the food for his father, had been of that elixir- Eren had not understood- within his dream- Sina’s eyes were indeed gold but naught like honey, rather they were gold as a cold and unyielding sun.

\--

Eren hears it from Hanji.

The reason Corporal Levi has been scarce as of recent.

It’d been during one of Hanji’s experiments. It’d been going well for the most part, Eren hadn’t done anything unusual from what he’d done before. It hadn’t been until the end that he’d started acting strange. Having reached the limit of staying in his titan form, usually it’d steam away and they’d drag him from whatever remained of the carcass or cut him out from what still clung to him. But this time had been different. All for one thing. 

It carried on as such as it had before, the form steaming, melting away… maybe taking a little longer than usual, but that might have just been because in the midst of it all… Eren’s titan form had been not roaring, not yelling, not grunting as it had all the previous times- instead it’d been crying, wailing, calling-

Speaking.

Suggesting that within it, that Eren who was in the nape, was doing quite the same.

Corporal Levi had been sure of it.

Intuition.

Hanji had never seen him move so quickly.

For safety’s sake he’d cut at Eren’s titan form’s limbs, and immobilizing him, had flown right into the hot, scalding, pouring steam, to rush to the nape- desperate to reach it as fast as possible.

What Eren had been crying out had not been for his father. No laments of regret, confusion, for he’d been crying for help- to be saved- for Corporal Levi- his name called over and over. Levi hadn’t been able to bear it.

He’d been badly burned, mainly on his hands, Hanji had said. He’d dived both his blades into the nape where the flesh was still thick since the form typically went feet first then up, the steam around him heating the metal of the swords, burning the palms of his hands. Even so he’d gritted his teeth and got the job done. 

He’d cut Eren out of the nape, the form collapsing entirely, melting, and dissolved as soon as Levi had hacked whatever flesh and membrane that still clung to Eren, more persistent than usual since he’d not waited. 

Hanji had withheld any disappointed comment on not being able to see titan Eren longer, seeing Levi’s stricken face, she’d only seen him make that face once before ya’know? She’d even help Levi clean Eren up, most of his own flesh had remained intact unlike previous times, but there’d still been much of the titan’s form hanging from him that Levi wanted also off from him as soon as possible. Hanji had taken over cleaning Eren up after Levi found it was not Eren’s own blood they were cleaning off him but Levi’s from the injuries he’d taken in compensation for his speed-

So in a nutshell, Hanji had said, not her usual chipper but trying to comfort him chipper, Corporal Levi was sulking in his room after making such a mess, and how it wasn’t unusual for him to want to hide his weaknesses since it’d be bad for the morale of the Survey Corps if it was known Humanity’s Strongest! could be injured. Stupid right? But true.

Eren is horrified.

Corporal Levi is injured… on account of him… this is not the first time either.

Corporal Levi who already does so much for him, saved him, protects him, teaches him… is now suffering because of him.

It’s more than Eren can withstand.

He cannot merely stand by and do nothing now that he knows the truth.

(It’d been days already…)

Eren heads straight to the kitchen, opening the tea cupboard to bring out a familiar glass jar. Honey. He will use honey to treat Corporal Levi’s hands. He had learnt of this from his father. Surely it is not a method without value.

But there is no value in an empty jar, Eren is quick to despair over.

The honey was scarcely used, Corporal Levi doesn’t take his tea other than black, a splash of milk every now and then. It’s others and Eren who are most likely to use the honey if any. Corporal Levi is almost insistent that Eren take honey in his tea when they have it together. Eren is surprised to find it empty, though it’s been a while he thinks almost empty himself, since he and the Corporal had tea together.

Hanji had followed him to the kitchen, teasing him on seeing the jar, not realising it’s empty as well until later. Was he going to use the honey to obtain Levi’s love? You know like that one story, oh how did it go… but Eren doesn’t hear her joke, staring at the empty jar, at a loss. 

And then.

“Squad Leader Hanji.”

“What is it~? Eren~?”

Hanji sings out, breath stopping as Eren turns his fierce eyes upon her, a plea within them.

“Please accompany me into the forest. I am not permitted to go alone. I must get more honey.”

Hanji chuckles to herself, remembering the tale faintly now, better, she would be playing the role of the goddess for this? The part didn’t really suit her but- the other roles are filled to a t so she can’t really go against fate can she?

“Sure thing kiddo!”

\--

Eren is glad Hanji had been considerate enough to go with him to search for honey.

She knows a lot more about bees, and nature… and other things than titans than she lets on… though it’s not intentionally since she really is always just talking about titans all the time.

She’s really helpful in locating a hive and helping Eren lure the bees out of the hive to steal it. Though she had suggested he transform into a titan to do so since titans don’t notice nor are they noticed by other living beings but humans ya know? Eren had refused this suggestion, reminding her of why they’re searching for honey in the first place…

It’s from the success of acquired honey that Eren carries a loaded tray, with not the usual items upon it up to Corporal Levi’s quarters. Walking through this familiar hall he has not crossed for a while now only makes Eren’s heart the heavier, but still he advances.

He can’t back down.

He knocks on Levi’s door.

Waits.

Hears a familiar voice, cold.

“Who is it?”

Eren opens his mouth to speak, but feels his voice falter, catch in his throat. The Corporal’s voice still resonating in his ears, familiar. It’s been so long since he’s heard this voice it seems he almost tears up.

Eren finally manages to find his voice.

“It’s me, sir. It’s Eren.”

A long moment of silence passes and Eren thinks Corporal Levi might turn him away, having heard not a reply- Eren looks abruptly down as the door opens and the Corporal is there, looking up at him from the crack of it. Careful that Eren not see his hands… and trying to block Eren from seeing the rest of the room, in a state Eren cannot believe.

Crumpled papers, clothes over furniture, ink stains, and rubbish on the floor. A meal unsuccessfully eaten and partially spilled on Levi’s desk, he must have been trying to eat before Eren had come up, with much difficulty.

How long has Corporal Levi been struggling?

Levi looks down to what Eren has in his hands.

Eren explains on the double.

“I brought a treatment… for the burns on your hands sir.”

Levi sighs.

“Fuck it.”

He opens the door so Eren may enter. Eren closes the door behind him, trying to keep a steady grip on the tray, looking at the state of Levi’s room in rising disbelief.

Levi continues to speak, irritation laced in the tone of his voice, a little different from before.

“Who told you? No, don’t bother. It had to have been those shitty glasses.”

Eren merely nods, trying to find a spot to put the tray down but can’t. Levi tries to clean up the surface of his desk, but is moving with some difficulty, he doesn’t want to stain the bandages about his injured hands either…

“Please, please let me sir,” Eren hears himself say, balancing the tray on his arm with one hand to grip it, he uses his free hand to clean the desk and throw some of the rubbish away. Placing the tray down only when the desk is near clean.

Levi is quick to take advantage.

“Good work. How bout the rest of the room then? Eren.”

Eren withholds his sigh, and starts on the rest of the room. It’s not all that bad, it’s merely bad to the Corporal’s standards (now Eren’s own). Eren is done in no time.

In the meanwhile Levi has once again tried to unsuccessfully feed himself without creating a mess. He’s spilled on the desk again but not himself as had been the sacrifice.

Levi looks over to Eren, expression deadpan as usual but Eren can tell his efforts are appreciated.

“Sorry.”

Levi apologises.

Since Eren had just helped clean the desk.

Eren shakes his head and wipes away the spill, wishing that he’d seen to the Corporal sooner… thinking that even more so when Corporal Levi gives up on his attempts at eating and allows Eren to inspect his burnt hands. Taking off the bandages Eren realises with some searing and painful feeling in his breast that someone else must have wrapped up the Corporal’s hands other than him. 

They’re in a horrible state looking like they’ve barely healed at all, such is age… and the severity of the burns. Eren soaks Corporal Levi’s hands in the basin of cool water he brought first, patting them barely to help with the drying. When Levi’s hands are dry, Eren places a towel over Corporal Levi’s lap and his own. Drenching his hands in honey, trying to be as gentle as possible he slathers the honey over the Corporal’s hands before going to the washroom to wash his hands. Returning to bandage up Levi’s hands none too tightly. Levi’s brow had broken in sweat during this procedure and his jaw tight but after Eren’s work is done and Eren informs him he will return tomorrow to renew the same procedure and perhaps… a few more times after, the tenseness about Levi’s shoulders and jaw appear to slack in the slightest.

But that’s probably from-

“Eren. What else is this you’ve brought?”

Levi is asking about the tall glass with a straw, the ice near all melted within now.

Eren frets over this a little, knowing the Corporal likes strong tea.

Also-

“It’s iced tea sir. I know you like it hot but… on account of your burns I thought it’d be for the better like this.”

He’d mixed the tea his mother had once made him, chamomile, with a black tea so the Corporal might not be too put off by it- a black tea with bergamot mixed in it… along with-

“I hope you don’t mind… since you’ve not had this tea before I’ve put… honey in it.”

Rather than be annoyed, since sweet things are for brats, Corporal Levi even appears (well for him that is) a twinge amused. Eren had even put a straw in the glass.

“To pair with your housewives’ remedy for burns?”

“My father taught me this sir! He is a well respected doctor, if you don’t mind me saying.”

Corporal Levi is trying the tea, moving the glass a little towards him with a bandaged hand, leaning forward to drink from the straw. Eren watches all the while, when he’d tried this recipe back in the kitchen before coming up, a recipe partially from his mother and modified by his own efforts he had thought it was-

Levi sits back from taking a sip before leaning forward to take another.

“Not bad.”

Eren can’t help the smile that spreads across his lips, his joy pitching forth, on the verge of overflowing as Levi continues to speak, though chidingly now seeing the only one glass.

“Next time bring a glass for yourself. I ain’t sharin’ mine.”

\--

For weeks Eren continues with the treatment.

He sees the Corporal everyday to check his burns and wash them, applying the honey if need be. He also makes sure Corporal Levi eats and assists him in feeding himself only when the food is too messy to be eaten with bandaged hands (like that stew of before) this is not for long, while Levi's hands still heal too slowly for Eren’s taste they are surely healing at a better rate than they’d been before. Eren is glad the treatment his father taught him is working.

As well as happy that the Corporal likes the tea so much that he insists on having it every time Eren visits, Eren had been concerned atop of being cold, and sweetened, Corporal Levi wouldn’t take to the tea given it wasn’t entirely plain black tea but his request suggests otherwise. Though Eren doesn’t cancel out the slight possibility Corporal Levi is merely tolerating the tea (and him) in order to save his feelings… he knows the Corporal well enough to know that that wouldn’t be unlike him. Corporal Levi is stern and hard to approach but he looks after his subordinates.

On a particular sunny day.

Eren helps Levi with his paperwork, though Levi tells him it’s fine if it all doesn’t get done on time, Erwin will figure it out. It’s a big pain anyway, and so long as Eren makes sure the room is tidy he’s not worried about much else… but he looks tired. Between the stress of his mobility hindered again, and not getting much rest to begin with even before injury (that Eren had fretted about before as well), this all must be hard even for him.

Eren had frowned, before returning to his dusting. Should they get into a situation where titans attacked, or their headquarters was being intruded, that’d mean Corporal Levi would have to fight… and with the condition his hands are in- much less the scars that are to remain-

He’s not allowed to think much on it further, as Corporal Levi calls for him. Warning Eren if he doesn’t drink his glass of tea, Levi is going to claim it for himself.

\--

There hadn’t been much honey left in the jar, to Eren's surprise. 

Eren is in the kitchen preparing the tea again. Corporal Levi’s hands are finally near healed, the treatment won’t be necessary though he will surely administer it if the Corporal asks for it. He’ll do anything Levi asks of him.

Hanji had taken some honey and stored it for who knows what, since she’d helped with obtaining it. It’s from Hanji that Eren has gotten more honey (and refilled the jar)… while asking for honey he’d also asked for some more help (her notebook out the whole while), what he’d wanted help with was… if she knew about these certain ingredients he wanted to get. For another remedy of his father’s but one that helps with fatigue.

Hanji had been interested if it’d been for himself this time but no of course not, she laughed, it’s Levi that Eren wants this remedy for isn’t it? That Levi… never sleeps much, he bitches about the workload but is quite the workaholic Hanji quips… before letting Eren know that unfortunately she doesn’t think they can get what Eren wants from where they are. And it’s too dangerous for Eren to go into town without Levi so- how about she just give him her own remedy she’d been saving! She swears it works! Just don’t tell Levi about it when you give it to him, he’d go bonkers if he knew Eren got the treatment from her!

Eren had been hesitant, the treatment is one that is sure to ease fatigue she said. Like a sleeping draught? He’d asked and she’d hummed to herself saying ‘something like that’. Eren looks at the vial of red fluid before he remembers the Corporal’s face, more worn all on account of him- he upturns the vial, spilling the contents into Levi’s glass of tea. Mixing well as he’d been instructed.

The fluid had smelled bitter and though he supposes the Corporal won’t mind that, Eren figures he should add a little more honey than usual into the tea anyway. Mixing well again. He decides to give it a little taste (sans straw as of recent) feeling rather guilty to put his mouth on the glass intended for Levi, he knows his suddenly quickened pulse is on account of that guilt.

He’d only intended to have a taste, his own glass fixed already, and then after he’d be ready to go up to the Corporal- he’d been having that taste, thinking it is too sweet for Corporal Levi's personal preference when the kitchen door opens and closes, heavily shuts- a no longer bandaged hand, riddled in scars suddenly clamping down on his shoulder as a face leans towards him to peer at him-

“Hey Eren, what’s taking you so long? You drinkin’ all the tea by yourself today?”

Eren chokes down most of the tea in the glass intended for Levi, some of it dribbling out of his mouth. He wipes his mouth with the back of his wrist, on the sleeve. Corporal Levi is glaring at him in near disgust. The mess.

“N-no sir! Sorry sir!”

“Might have thought otherwise since you gulped that down plenty fast.”

Levi removes his hand and reaches for the other glass. Drinks from it.

Eren looks away embarrassed and disappointed.

Corporal Levi could have rested well tonight but because he’d been stupid and careless he’d ended up drinking the specially made tea himself. 

He presses a fist to his brow. Feeling utterly defeated, humiliated, such an idiot, he can’t even do one thing for the Corporal, even if it was just one night- surely it would have helped in some way- he’s feeling vexed and his face is hot, the rest of him is feeling hot- not all of it is from the searing feeling of shame that’d risen in his chest on looking down at the Corporal’s near empty glass- now his glass.

Corporal Levi had still been drinking tea from what was supposed to be Eren’s glass. He turns to Eren, expression laced with concern and some shock.

“Oi… are you alright? Your face is really red? You hot even drinking all that ice?”

Levi sets the glass of iced tea down on the counter and presses the back of his hand to Eren’s brow. Brushing away the fist Eren had been holding there in frustration and on account of the fact that he isn’t... feeling all too well suddenly.

Perhaps… he’s having some sort of reaction to the remedy Hanji had given?! 

But if that’s the case shouldn’t he be sleeping not… not this… whatever it is…

His skin only seems to burn hotter on feeling Levi’s touch. Levi is turning his hand to feel better with his palm, that’d just barely near all healed but Eren slaps it away.

“Don’t touch me! Please! Corporal Levi…”

But Levi looks like he wants to do anything but what Eren has requested. His eyes roaming over Eren’s face, his throat, to his chest where Eren is clutching his arms around, holding himself, down farther- it wasn’t any good, for Eren to tell Levi what to do but in this situation-

Eren struggles with every word, breathing feeling thick and heavy, difficult with his body burning like this-

“…I put something in the tea Squad Leader Hanji gave me… she said it was supposed to help you sleep but… I think because… I’m a titan shifter I’m reacting strangely to it…”

He tries to stifle it but it’s a sob-

“Corporal Levi I’m very sorry. My body is so hot, just like it is after I’ve transformed- and you’re still injured and unarmed to boot… what should I do… what should we do…”

Levi has reached over to pick up the glass intended for him. He drinks what little remains of its contents. Mulling over it silently, before speaking.

“Calm down Eren. You’re not turning into a titan from this. I’ll go get Hanji. They probably have something you can take to negate this.”

Setting the glass down.

Levi turns away from him, and heads for the door without so much as glancing back. Eren seeing the Corporal’s back typically comforts him but today- the idea that the cost of it is Corporal Levi leaving him right now is so terrifying he can’t stand it- Eren reaches and grabs at Levi’s wrist, tugging at his shirt sleeve. That's all he can bring himself to cling to considering the shameless words that leave his mouth next.

“Please Corporal Levi! Don’t leave my side! I want you! I want you to save me!”

Levi has halted his steps but still doesn’t look back to him. Without a word he wrenches his arm from Eren’s grip, moving forward to the door. Eren leans back against the counter, clutching back at it. His tears on the verge of falling fall as he hears the lock of the kitchen door click.

He’s no time to look up in confusion and through the veil of his own tears as he blinks them away. Startled as Corporal Levi slams against him, his hands clamping down around Eren’s arms as he holds Eren still. His mouth locking over Eren’s hungrily and Eren suddenly understands why his mother hated those fairytales so- those stories where a princess is waked from slumber with a tender, gentle kiss- kisses must not be like that at all- with how the Corporal kisses him he thinks that must be so.

This is the truth.

His body has grown hotter.

It hurts. Levi’s mouth on his as he bites and licks at him, the sounds are moist and loud in the otherwise quiet kitchen. There’s a moan but he’s unsure if it’d come from him or the Corporal. He can feel something hard pressing against his thigh as Levi presses a leg between his, wedging his thigh there he rubs it against Eren’s crotch. Eren discovers the next moan and the next to be his as he feels himself grow hard like that which is pressing against his thigh- oh-

Corporal Levi is hard, not only that- his touch, his kiss, his body pressing against Eren’s as he grinds against him and encourages Eren to do like such against him- is rough, but it feels good, it’s only making his temperature rise, his insides molten, his tears that’d felt so warm before are cool in comparison.

Eren feels Levi’s hands move from clutching at his arms, at first there to hold him in place- to move under his shirt, one hand has started to trail over and down his belly, the other up his chest to cup at a breast- Eren startled- horrified- clutches his hands around Levi’s wrists and tries to get them off of him- Eren tears his mouth from Levi’s, panting-

“No. You can’t Corporal. Didn’t I tell you not to touch me?”

If Corporal Levi touches his skin, with how hot it is- 

“You’re going to hurt yourself. Y-your hands are almost all healed but they’re still… I don’t want to ruin them f-further- I don’t want to hurt you anymore- you’ll get burnt again I don’t want that-”

Corporal Levi is kissing him, more gently this time that Eren might have to rethink his thoughts of earlier.

He’s clutching the counter again as Levi eases off of him, and pulls his hands away to Eren’s relief and discomfort. He wants Levi to touch him but he doesn’t want to cause him anymore pain.

“Hold on a moment. Eren.”

Levi is rolling up the sleeves of his shirt, buttoning them in place at the elbow so they don’t roll back down again.

Eren is holding his hands to his chest, trying to hold them clenched to his rapidly beating heart. As he watches the muscles flex and stretch in movement as Levi reaches over to the glass jar of honey and coats his burn scarred hands in it. Eren looks around. Bandages. The only bandages are in the cupboard, he’s trying to tell Levi this is so as Levi pulls Eren’s shirt over his head, muffling his words. The removal of his shirt means air on his skin which feels nice- Corporal Levi’s hands feeling much nicer than that as he drags them over Eren’s body, trailing honey in the wake of his touch over every inch of Eren’s skin.

That’s not what Eren thought Levi had put honey on his hands for.

“It’s alright now ain’t it? The burns don’t hurt at all like this so I can touch you can’t I? Eren.”

Levi is asking as he’s already doing, making it difficult for Eren to argue. He’s unbuckling both Eren’s trousers and his, drawing his cock out and tugging on Eren’s to bring their members together in his fists, pumping them and rubbing them together in both his hands. Eren moves his hands from the counter’s edge to Levi’s shoulders, grasping them as he cries out and moans. Levi is licking at the honey he’d gotten on Eren’s nipples when he’d circled the tips of his fingers on them and pinched them. Levi’s biting on one, sucking as Eren moves his hips against Levi’s. Brow furrowed as he looks down through moist lashes on the Corporal touching them together like this.

Levi pulls his mouth away from Eren’s breast, saliva trailing out between his mouth and Eren’s skin; and Eren almost wants to tell Levi how messy it looks to rile him up, to get him angry as he should be, for him always being inconvenienced by him… this is how Eren feels but he can’t get any words out as Levi starts to press kisses to his skin. Breathing heavily, Levi is licking the underside of his chin where his sweat has mingled with the honey-

“Sweet. You’re too sweet, Eren.”

It’s too hot.

Eren is pressing against Levi’s shoulders again.

“Let’s stop. You don’t like sweets do you Corporal Levi? Even with the honey… I don’t think it’s good for you to be touching me like this. Your burns… and I’m too strange right now… what if I do transform- sword… you need a sword-”

Levi is kissing him and it tastes sweet, from the honey he’d licked off of Eren’s body.

“Ha? What stupid shit are you saying Eren? I’ve already got a nice sword for you, right here with yours-”

Then Eren has been flipped over, and bent over the table across from the counter, he feels the Corporal pull at his hands, tying them up in his cravat that he pulls from his throat- and the sight of Levi’s bare throat leaves Eren motionless. Rendered unable to move or consider much else as the throbbing heat inside him near boiling over is unbearable. His erection is wedged between his stomach and the edge of the table. He tries not to make it obvious as he gets on his toes to rub himself on the hard surface, whimpering. His hands are drawn back because Levi is tying them up behind him.

“There. With it like that you can’t bite into your hands can you? Then you won’t transform you think?”

Eren doesn’t say anything in reply. Merely moaning as he tries to discreetly hoist himself up on the table to hump against it, suddenly terribly unfulfilled. Corporal Levi had popped off a few of his shirt buttons in taking off his cravat, it is not only the throat Eren can see. Eren’s mouth anything put parched though the rest of him is so hot, as Levi pulls down his trousers. Leaving but a moment to coat his hands with more honey. Eren feels Levi’s touch soon again, with the cool stickiness of the honey, moving over his back and hips, the backs of his thighs and ass as Levi gropes him. He can hear and feel the Corporal’s ragged breath against the small of his back and the tips of his fingers as he pants while leaning over him as he feels him up. Eren cries out when Levi inserts his honey slicked fingers into his asshole, pressing them up in there deeply, thickly, three at a time, as his other hand clenches over one of Eren’s ass cheeks. Flexing his fingers over it, enjoying its softness almost as much as how hot it is inside Eren, his burns be damned.

After slicking Eren up with honey he drenches his hands in the remainder of it. Coating his hard cock in it before positioning himself at Eren’s hole, groping at Eren’s hot ass. Groaning all the while, groaning louder as he enters Eren who cries out sweetly, struggling to bring his ass back and his hips up to take Levi inside him. The honey helpful in more ways than Eren has ever known as Levi fills him to the rim. Quickly, over and over- grunting, his hands sticky and at Eren’s hips as his pulls them up to him. Some of his drool drips from his mouth onto Eren’s shoulder blades as he’s immersed in pleasure. Eren’s fingers from his tied hands are pressed to Levi's stomach, the muscles there- Eren can feel them-

Sweat mixed with honey is dripping over the both of them, flying into the air, staining the table as Levi pounds into him.

“How is it Eren? It’s not a bad sword is it? Is it good enough for you, you lewd brat-”

Eren can’t really argue against that either. Considering how good it does feel, to have Corporal Levi inside him, and how he can’t control himself from writhing against the Corporal, but with how much more he wants, he wants- 

“No. I want… if you’re just going to strain your hands like this anyway… I need… you to take a firmer grip and hold me, sir.”

For a moment Levi stops entering him, and drawing out-

“Between this and the honey, it makes me almost think you’re trying to seduce me. Eren.”

Then Eren is flipped over, the tie of the cravat around his wrists loosen and unbound. Levi hoists Eren up and takes a firmer grip on the backs of his thighs as he directs him to sit upon his cock, stepping back to lean against that counter edge Eren had been struggling against moments before he’d been thrown over the table.

Eren’s arms are over Levi’s shoulders, his hands threading through Levi’s mussed hair. Levi's brow dabbled in sweat- as Levi carefully holds him up. Eren fucks himself on Levi’s cock as he presses his mouth over Levi’s, kissing him hungrily. Tightening his thighs over Levi’s hips and moaning loudly when he feels the tip of Levi’s hard cock reach farther inside him than he’s ever reached with his fingers. Eren kisses Levi harshly, bruising as Levi’s touch is on his ass, groping all the more as he groans into Eren’s mouth.

Eren feels a shift in balance as Levi’s weaker leg (from once injury) seems to want to give under Eren’s persistent weight as Eren brings himself up on Levi’s cock while holding onto Levi’s shoulders and back down it with a twist of his hips, his back arching- he wants Corporal Levi to cum before him. He wants Corporal Levi to cum inside him. Eren wants Levi.

Eren cups Levi’s face and tenderly kisses his mouth, much like Levi had done for him before. Parting their lips from the other’s only to finally reply to Levi’s question of earlier.

“What if I am, Corporal Levi? What if I am trying to seduce you?”

The strength Levi had been lacking in only seconds before, seemingly overtaken by Eren, taxed by his exhaustion and the shadows of previous injuries all seem healed and renounced now as he holds Eren up by his ass, with one hand. The other hand drawing itself to clutch at Eren’s hair and draw Eren’s head back, when Eren suddenly consumed by Levi’s fevered motion had cried out and pressed his face to Levi’s throat, letting his tears fall there, as he feels Levi fuck him. His entire body hard and unyielding. Corporal Levi is kissing him, swearing at him, angry with him- desperate for him-

“Look at me Eren. Look at me, look only to me. I’m the only one who can protect you, who can save you. No one else is strong enough. That’s the reason why you always call out for me isn’t it? Hey, Eren.”

Suddenly Eren realises perhaps- Corporal Levi had hid his injuries from everyone, including him- for this reason- if Eren saw weakness in him then-

When Levi presses up inside Eren, Eren presses down, to the hilt- he wants to feel Corporal Levi- he never wants to let Levi go, he never wants Levi to let go of him-

Like a confession, it tumbles from his lips, quiet and gentle over Levi’s mouth as Eren’s hovers his above it. His tears he thought to all have been fallen, and dried on either his or the Corporal’s equally scorching flesh; there are still many more.

“I call out for you because I trust in you Corporal Levi. There is not another person more I believe in in this world. The reason for that is because… I admire your strength, your experience, your kindness to me… there is also not another person I love more than you sir. So, is it not obvious it’d be you whose name I call?”

Both of Levi’s legs weaken on hearing what Eren has to say. Levi still holds firmly onto Eren as they both sink to the floor. Levi still inside him as Eren moves above him, worrying over the spot where Levi had hit his head on the way down. Levi tells Eren to quit apologising and not worry over it. He’s plenty comfortable, so long as he gets to stay inside Eren like this a little longer- Eren still rubs worriedly at the bump, lacing his fingers behind Levi’s head. Eren holds it gently and kisses Levi just as gently over his brow, his closed eyes and cheeks before pressing his lips to Levi’s mouth, moaning when Levi starts to move inside him again. Corporal Levi is clinging onto him tightly despite that he need not worry about Eren falling to the ground as they’re both there already. 

Eren grinds himself down on Levi’s lap, cries getting higher with each thrust as he holds Levi’s head to his breast. From this proximity Levi can hear, feel, recognise Eren’s heartbeat, pounding, and undeniably for him, almost as loud as Eren’s adorable voice as he cries for Corporal Levi, Levi, _Levi_ over and over. Looking at him all the while. Levi cums inside Eren.

Eren cumming soon after. Eren wonders over Levi’s eyes- boring into him, looking at him and only him- Eren wonders how grey, how silver usually cool can be as they are now, heated and vibrant like a full moon on the darkest of nights and he remembers Sina from his dream- her contradiction. 

And he knows just how it could be.

Like the metals from the earth that are gathered from the mountains that are forged into the blades of their swords for killing titans. First that grey colour, turned red, orange, yellow, blue and black- struck upon with trial and hammer over and over, all to make it stronger, washed clean and cooled in the risen steam- but the memory of fire does not fade. The blade was forged within flame.

Corporal Levi is very warm.

He’s slid to the floor and is laying on his back with Eren atop of him. Both exhausted and spent.

“Don’t you dare fall asleep,” is what Levi is telling him though the Corporal looks like he’s ready to sleep at any moment. He’s holding Eren against him, an arm over his shoulders. Another across the small of his back so a hand cups an already healed from the bruises, hip.

“That’s right… we mustn’t sleep here should we sir? I’m sure you want to get off the floor as soon as possible.”

Though to be honest most of the mess on the floor is on account of them.

Honey, sweat, and cum.

Levi is swearing under his breath about the mess the both of them are too tired to clean up.

Eren had understood they shouldn’t sleep here but he’s still dozing off, it’s comfortable in Levi’s arms, and if the Corporal doesn’t rise- Eren can’t really compel himself to rise either…

Eren jumps when he hears the knock on the kitchen door, wondering why the person knocking doesn’t just come in… that’s right, Corporal Levi had locked… the door…

“What is it?”

Levi calls out. He sounds more pissed off than he might on answering over a door that isn’t his own, considering the room they occupy is rather essential and for everyone’s use… and Eren doesn’t think after all they’ve done the Corporal is too mad, so he must be sounding like this to cover up the fact that he can barely move at the moment? Right?

Or so Eren thinks. Corporal Levi suddenly rises, still holding Eren against him as he moves.

The voice from behind the door is-

“Ah, sorry, sorry. I wasn’t expecting you to be in the kitchen Levi! I’d given Eren a lot of honey earlier so I was just wondering what he might be cooking with it~ I wanted to steal a taste if I could.”

This is a lie, a total and unabashed lie.

Levi sees right through it.

“Cut your bullshit Hanji. You know exactly who Eren got that honey for. I ain’t sharing with anyone. I wouldn’t share with you especially. Rat out shitty glasses.”

There’s some laughter behind the door.

“Ohoho so you are angry about that! I was wondering on that Levi. Didn’t like how I wouldn’t let you hide from Eren any longer? Don’t be mad! He was soooo worried you know! He hadn’t seen you in days even though you’re like always staring at his ass every day so what could you expect?”

Levi has gotten to his feet, holding Eren up, he carries him to the table where he sits Eren upon. Levi looks about for towels and runs some water at the sink, wetting them he starts to clean himself up, wiping what he can. Most of the mess is over and inside Eren. He gets another towel for Eren and starts to clean him- pressing a finger to his lips, when Eren starts, a small yelp from how Levi is using cold water… but it’s not surprisingly considering his hands and the state Eren had been in earlier-

“-he was definitely going to cry if I didn’t say anything. Oh man you should have seen that, you’re into that kinda thing aren’t ya? If you saw the sort of face he’d been making you’d rat yourself out too! It’d been pretty cute actually you know! Oh wait you don’t know, you didn’t see it. Jealous?”

Having cleaned themselves up as best they can, Levi has done up his trousers, sighed over his missing buttons and doesn’t bother with his cravat that needs to be washed. Eren has pulled up his trousers and Levi is helping him back into his shirt, kissing Eren’s head and brow after the fabric falls over his stomach. Eren had managed to keep near silent this whole time. Not too hard since Hanji is still chattering away. 

She’s gotten comfortable behind that door.

“-but I couldn’t just leave Eren hanging like that, I mean if I didn’t tell him he was bound to find out sooner or later. Probably would have stormed into your office like he’s about to confess or something, sure your dick would have gotten real hard over that or is that why you’re mad because that’s what you were aiming for?”

Hanji almost has a bump matching to Levi’s when Levi opens the door she’d been leaning against abruptly, pushing her out of the way. She ends up on the floor.

“Are your glasses broken shitty glasses. Damn shame that.”

Hanji picks herself up from the floor, not bothering to wipe the dirt from her clothes knowing that would annoy Levi more than even-

“Hehe, not at all! They’re OK!”

Hanji puts on her not broken glasses and Levi tch’s in annoyance.

Says to her.

“Then if you can see I’ll leave the kitchen clean up to you.”

Hanji’s about to protest, since she only came down to be nosy but she supposes this is just what she gets for being caught. The loser has to pay up right?

Levi is leaving, and Eren follows after behind him, giving a slight bow towards Hanji who pushes up her glasses. A little surprised to see him. Not surprised to see his difficulty with walking.

“Thank you for all your help!”

And Hanji doesn’t know if Eren means by that her helping get the honey, her giving him more honey, or that aphrodisiac or the fact that she has to clean the kitchen… she really isn’t the best to ask this of but, she smiles wide to herself, least she didn’t lie to Eren. Her remedy really had done the job!

Hanji steps inside the kitchen and looks around, gaze stopping on the floor, she takes her glasses off her face. Cleans them on the bit of her coat that’s probably cleaner than the rest of her attire. Puts them back on. So it isn’t her glasses.

Her remedy had done the job good!

Too good.

She really has to say.

She doesn’t suppose she’ll live to see another day if she doesn’t take some responsibility considering Levi had caught her red handed.

Hanji wonders what she can spill on the ground to cover up one mess with an even bigger mess.

\--

Eren remembers falling asleep after Corporal Levi had.

No small feat.

He’d been elated to see Levi’s sleeping face, though he’d worried and fretted over it, but tired himself he eventually fell asleep not long afterwards.

He’d been hoping he’d wake before the Corporal as well but that is too big of a feat for him, especially him. He’d slept past noon. It’d still been day the other day when they’d ascended the stairs to Levi’s room after all their activity in the kitchen and then a quick bath so it’s been a long while they’ve been sleeping.

Corporal Levi is awake before him, but still in bed with him, his fingers are in Eren’s hair, stroking through it. He presses a kiss to Eren’s mouth to wake him up but it’s in vain, Eren stares dazedly ahead before-

“Have you been awake long Corporal?”

“Not especially, but if you didn’t wake soon and a kiss ain’t gunna cut it I wouldn’t have minded resorting to other means.”

Eren doesn’t bat so much as an eyelash at the implications of that last statement, still amazed he is in Corporal Levi’s bed, in Levi’s arms, and it’s day! Eren blinks against the sunlight that’s streaming through the window, uncovered. Too warm.

When they’d first come up Eren had tried to sleep at his usual spot on the sofa, but Levi hadn’t allowed that, Eren figures it was on account of how Levi wasn’t at his usual spot either, at his desk doing some of that hated paperwork so it was bed for both of them…

When Eren slept on the sofa he’d usually wake in the middle of the night, having retired before Corporal Levi- he’d go to check on Levi and sometimes find him asleep at his desk. During those times Eren would take the blanket he’d been using to drape over the Corporal. Scared to wake him though that position can’t be too comfortable (especially come morning) and pretty much capable of sleeping through and on anything when he’s tired enough, he’d just returned to the sofa right after. Sometimes waking with that blanket returned to him and Levi gone from his desk, or more embarrassingly- in his bed in the dungeons, the blankets piled on- he’d slept the whole while being carried…

Eren tucks his face, burning at this memory, against Levi’s throat. Levi doesn’t seem to mind since Eren has drawn closer to him with the motion.

“Should we get out of bed soon sir?”

“No,” Levi says flat out, “knowing Hanji they didn’t bother to clean up the kitchen at all and has put it in an even more horrendous state than we left it. I ain’t dealing with that first thing. There’s plenty we can get done just here.”

He pulls Eren closer to him and Eren starts to catch on what Levi means by that.

Eren pulls back away from Levi and rolls atop of him, to peer at his face, noting the dark shadows of before seem lighter, and he does look more rested than usual… but even so Eren doesn’t want Levi to tire out… especially since they’d been skimping on the desk work… he doesn’t want Corporal Levi to get in trouble.

Levi is already in trouble.

Since he woke before Eren, and saw Eren’s sleeping face aside his, content and peaceful, in bliss.

And now as he leans over him, his fingers skimming over his face, inspecting him, looking at him-

Eren asks him.

“How did you know about that fable about honey, Corporal?”

Levi thinks about it, looking up at Eren, into his eyes. Reminded more by them than Eren's prompting.

“…in the underground we were always trying to get money with any means possible, it’s how you survived. We stole as much as we could from any nobles that dare stuck their upheld noses in our business… one time, when I was a brat, a bunch of us stole a box from this carriage we overheard to be holding ‘gold’. None of us had ever seen gold before.”

Eren listens attentively.

“We got away and they didn’t catch us. Good thing because we’d have been shot dead for sure. We opened up the box and were pretty stupid, we’d never seen gold melted down before so we were convinced that’s what it had to be, to be in these jars… until we opened a jar up and someone decided to take a taste… we still didn’t know what it was exactly, honey don’t exist in the underground but we knew by then it wasn’t gold we’d stolen.”

Eren had always figured Levi didn’t like sweet things because adults don’t take much to that, but if he’d not eaten sweet things much in his youth…

“What did you all do with the honey then?” 

Levi sighs, a hand at his brow, through his hair.

“-if we knew what it was we probably could have sold it for a high price and made a pretty fortune but because we didn’t know… being just a bunch of kids, we all brought a jar home and ate it.”

Eren imagines for a moment a child Levi eating honey from the jar with his fingers like some sort of bear cub but it’s difficult, since honey is messy…

“I gave mine to my mother. She told me you often put this sorta thing in tea but since that was an impossible commodity in the underground she just boiled some water and put the honey in it… she wasn’t much a cook to begin with so she wasn’t sure what to do with the honey so she typically just did that or stuck it in whatever hoping it’d make the food taste good. She seemed to have fun with it. She burnt those hot cakes done not even honey could save them I gotta admit though…”

The reason Levi always insists Eren take honey in his tea…

“She didn’t even ask me where I got it, she was always like that. From what I can remember.”

Levi wipes at the tears that have started to fall from Eren’s eyes, not bothering to wipe away the ones that’d already fallen on him.

“…and it was she I heard the tale from, one of her customers had told her, about how honey can grant you any love you desire, so the goddesses had deemed or some shit like that. A fairytale through and through, do you like those sorta things, Eren? Of course you do. You’re still a brat yourself.”

Eren stills Levi’s hands and wipes away the rest of his own tears.

“But the story is true is it not?”

Eren pulls Levi’s hand to rest at the back of his neck as he bends down to hover his mouth over Levi’s.

“If it’d not been for the honey would you be holding me right now?”

Levi tightens his grip, placed by Eren, on the back of his neck, possessively. Eren can feel that Levi is hard beneath him, having settled to sit against his lap.

“…if not for the honey then eventually, one day you’d be able to be woken by a kiss. You almost did today didn’t you?”

And Eren pictures what Levi means by this, stunned-

“Every time I kissed you as you slept you never woke for me, but you’ll wake for me now won’t you Eren? If you’re saying fairytales are real. If the goddesses don’t lie-”

Levi has pulled him down to him and is kissing him harshly, Eren wonders all those kisses he never woke to, surely the Corporal didn’t kiss him like this or he would have woke- he’s about to say as such, but Levi has grown impatient, and pulling Eren’s hips up he moves to enter him. The mattress is creaking beneath them as Eren rides him, his hands over Levi’s hands at his hips.

Eren cums quickly, over Levi’s chest, apologies already tumbling from his lips, but Levi merely takes off his shirt and tosses it to the floor for now. Eren likes this development and feels less bad about coming so soon. As he continues to ride Levi he pulls Levi's hands from his hips, drawing them up close before his face, looking at them, they are pretty much healed, minus the scars that would always be there from the burns… Eren leans forth, kisses at Levi’s palms until Levi reaches, sitting up to cup Eren’s face. He kisses Eren again, cums inside him and when they lie back down over the other- Eren is still kissing his hands, nuzzling his face to the palm of one and Levi wants to cum inside him again.

Levi looks into Eren’s eyes as Eren his, Eren remembering what he’d thought of them before- sharp steel- Eren considers saying something though Levi might think it silly but Levi speaks first.

Levi says to Eren.

“O most beautiful and fearful goddess Sina, whose eyes are as gold as honey and as bright as the sun at broken dawn, you who behold the wonders of all this land, bestow upon me your mercy and grant me the strength to defeat any enemy you deem to be yours for they shall be mine own.”

Levi is speaking of the story as he had heard it, while to Eren it’d been of the goddess he’d been told the tale was about- to Levi his mother had been greatly impressed by the knight. Had she exaggerated his part for Levi whom she wished to grow strong and fearless like a knight or had she merely been telling the tale as she’d been told?

The brave and foolish knight.

Levi continues.

“If your heart is not to be had then I no reason to hold onto the one I currently possess. I give up my heart to you, to do with as you please.”

Sina, who was wise and had a king to serve, a princess to protect, a country to watch over; having once resided in the heavens.

Eren knows not of such a paradise, knows of no princess who cannot protect herself, and the places within the walls he wishes to watch over and grant hope to only extend to the people who reside within them and not the place itself… for one day when all the titans are be rid of from this earth they would have no need of walls, kings or gods.

So Eren replies to Levi as thus.

As one human would.

To their beloved.

As the goddess might have had she been mortal and loved the knight as the knight loved her, as the princess might have had she not been the future queen.

“I shall accept your heart but in return you must keep mine.”

Levi holds his fist over his chest, a salute upon his heart.

Eren has never seen Levi salute before and him being the cause- it rises and does not set, the feeling within his breast.

Levi answers him, moving that fist over his heart to press against Eren’s chest.

“Until I die. I shall protect this heart.”

The morning light is too gentle to the beating in his breast that they both feel, that light that comes from the gold and unyielding sun, but Eren knows the truth. It is the cold steel before him that is hotter than any star, blazing and more rapid than any flame. Should there come a day when this heart must die then Eren knows he will be cut down and struck through by no other blade.

Eren folds his hand over Levi’s.

“Without fail. For it is truly yours and yours alone.”

The day is theirs but come evening, the encroaching of inevitable nightfall upon them they can hear a deal of clamor from below, their comrades wondering over their absence, Eren muses perhaps they should go clean up the kitchen and Levi surmises he’ll wake anyone who’s gone to bed already for the task since they must have slept in as well considering they’d not been disturbed all day.

That is what should be, must be done.

But then Eren draws the blankets over them and his mouth suggests an otherwise Levi can’t pass on, not when Eren’s sucking so earnestly on him.

They’ll put it off until tomorrow then.

If the kitchen is too much still of a disaster by then since no one else is doing their job Levi figures he'll just set the whole place on fire.

\--

Eren has to admit he prefers Levi’s assistance to Hanji’s considering Levi doesn’t suggest he turn into a titan to obtain the hive and honey.

They’re in the woods for that purpose, the jar of honey no longer full again they’d set out into the thick woods together to seek that golden elixir not exactly to the one in that fable of so long ago, living in the now, they can only find what exists here in this time with them.

Their mission successful, more than one jar is filled. It’d been easier this time since Levi had insisted that the use of 3D maneuver gear could be expended for this though he’d had to fight a little with Eren who felt that the gear should only be used in combat against titans- Levi told him, it’d been a while since he’d trained on the gear right? So this is fine enough for practice, and honey is useful. Eren had taught him that. It ain’t a waste. He’d make it an order if Eren was still being picky about it but Eren had relented.

This morning the kitchen is full of people and not for the purpose of cleaning it up as it'd been as of late more than for its meant for purpose of cooking.

Eren is showing Levi how to cook hot cakes and not burn them, filled with apples preserved in that honey fought for of before, they are making a sweet meal that everyone waits for in anticipation. Hanji maybe a little too much in comparison to that of Levi’s new squad considering she’s not a brat like the rest of them.

Levi thinks that but when the food is all set before everyone and they begin to eat he’s probably the childish of them all insisting he ain’t sharing any leftovers even before he’s finished eating his first helping of many. Thinking that Levi is concerned the honey will be eaten all up when he still needs them for his hands, Eren assures him that no matter how many times necessary he will always go where Levi goes.

They can always go and retrieve more.

Whose roles are they filling now?

Hanji doesn't know anymore.

It's their own story these two have taken hold of.


End file.
